The Elements of Prose

Characters
Setting
Plot
Point of view
Theme
Mood

You have learned about the elements of poetry, drama, and prose.
Characters
Characters are the people or animals in the story. A story often describes the interaction
of characters, including their relationships and the changes they undergo.
In the story you just read. The characters are Brian, his mom, Alex, Kenya, and Mike.
Setting
Setting is when and where the story takes place.
There are two settings in this story. The first is Brian’s home and the second is art camp.
The story takes place over the summer.
Plot
Plot is what happens in the story, or the sequence of events.
The plot of the story is Brian is worried about going to art camp. When he arrives, there is only
one spot left for him to sit down. He meets three other kids at the table and they all start
talking. Brian goes home knowing he has new friends.

Point of View
The point of view of the story relates to the person telling the story. Sometimes the
narrator is a character in the story and tells the story. This type of narrator tells the story
from a first-person point of view. Sometimes the narrator is not a character in the
story and refers to the characters by name or as he or she. This type of narrator tells the
story from a third-person point of view.
This story is written in third-person point of view because Brian is not telling the story.
The narrator refers to Brian as he and the kids as they.

Theme
Theme is the lesson or message of a story. To identify the story’s message, look for
clues in what the characters say and do, what happens as the result of their actions, and
how the characters change.
In this story, the theme is new and scary situations can change to be very happy events.

Mood
The mood of a selection is the feeling the author creates using story details, the setting,
and images.
The mood of this story starts off worrisome because Brian is nervous about not knowing anyone
at art camp. But the mood changes by the end of the story when Brian
 Elements of Poetry
When you read a poem, pay attention to some basic ideas:
Voice (Who the speaking persona? How is he/she speaking?)
Stanzas (how lines are grouped)
Sound (includes rhyme, but also many other patterns)
Rhythm (the kind of "beat" or meter the poem has)
Figures of speech (many poems are full of metaphors and other figurative language)
Form (there are standard types of poem)

Voice
Voice is a word people use to talk about the way poems "talk" to the reader.
Lyric poems and narrative poems are the ones you will see most. Lyric poems express
the feelings of the writer.
A narrative poem tells a story.
Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation. A mask puts on
the identity of someone or something else, and speaks for it.
Apostrophe talks to something that can't answer (a bee, the moon, a tree) and is good
for wondering, asking, or offering advice.
Conversation is a dialogue between two voices and often asks us to guess who the
voices are.

Stanza
A stanza is a group within a poem which may have two or more lines. They are like
paragraphs.
Some poems are made of REALLY short stanzas, called couplets--two lines that rhyme, one after
the other, usually equal in length.

Sound
One of the most important things poems do is play with sound. That doesn't just mean
rhyme. It means many other things. The earliest poems were memorized and recited,
not written down, so sound is very important in poetry.
Rhyme - Rhyme means sounds that agree. "Rhyme" usually means end rhymes (words
at the end of a line). They give balance and please the ear. Sometimes rhymes are
exact. Other times they are just similar. Both are okay.
You mark rhyme in a poem with the letters of the alphabet. For instance, in this stanza:
Whose woods these are I think I know. (a) His house is in the village though; (a) He will
not see me stopping here (b) To watch his woods fill up with snow. (a)
the rhyme scheme is aaba (because "know," "though," and "snow" rhyme,

they are marked "a," while "here" is another rhyme, and is marked "b")
Repetition - Repetition occurs when a word or phrase is used more than once.
Repetition can create a pattern
Refrain - Lines repeated in the same way, that repeat regularly in the poem.
Alliteration - Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound in different words.
Onomatopoeia - Onomatopoeia means words or phrases that sound like the things
they are describing. (hiss, zoom, bow-wow, etc.)
Consonance - Consonance happens when consonants agree in words, though they
may not rhyme. (fast, lost)
Assonance - Assonance happens when vowels agree in words, though they may not
rhyme. (peach, tree)
Rhythm
Meter (or metrics) - When you speak, you don't say everything in a steady tone like a
hum--you'd sound funny. Instead, you stress parts of words. You say different parts of
words with different volume, and your voice rises and falls as if you were singing a song.
Mostly, we don't notice we're doing it. Poetry in English is often made up of poetic units
or feet. The most common feet are the iamb, the trochee, the anapest, and the dactyl.
Each foot has one stress or beat.
Depending on what kind of poem you're writing, each line can have anywhere from one
to many stressed beats, otherwise known as feet. Most common are:
Trimeter (three beats)
Tetrameter (four beats)

Poetic forms
There are a number of common poetic forms. .
Ballad - story told in verse. A ballad stanza is usually four lines, and there is often a
repetitive refrain. As you might guess, this form started out as a song. An example of a
traditional Scottish ballad is Lord Randal at http://www.bartleby.com/243/66.html
Haiku - a short poem with seventeen syllables, usually written in three lines with five
syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. The present tense is
used, the subject is one thing happening now, and words are not repeated. It does not
rhyme. The origin of the haiku is Japanese.
Cinquain - a five-line poem with two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in
the third, eight in the fourth, and two in the fifth. It expresses one image or thought, in
one or possibly two sentences.
Villanelle - a 19-line poem with five tercets and one quatrain at the end. Two of the lines
are repeated alternately at the ends of the tercets, and finish off the poem: the first line
and the third line of the first tercet. Although it sounds very complicated, it's like a song
or a dance and easy to see once you've looked at a villanelle.
Limerick - A five-line poem, usually meant to be funny. The rhythm is anapests. Lines 1,
2, and 5 rhyme with one another, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another. Lines 1, 2,
and 5 have three feet, lines 3 and 4 have two feet. An iamb can be substituted for an
anapest in the first foot of any line. The last foot can add another unstressed beat for the
rhyming effect.
Sonnet - There are different types of sonnet. The most familiar to us is made of three quatrains
and ends with a couplet. They tend to be complicated and elegant. William Shakespeare wrote
the most well-known sonnets.

Free verse (or open form) - Much modern poetry does not obviously rhyme and doesn't
have a set meter. However, sound and rhythm are often still important, and it is still often
written in short lines.
Concrete poetry (pattern or shape poetry) is a picture poem, in which the visual shape of the
poem contributes to its meaning.
 Types of Prose
Unlike poetry, prose does not fall into neatly defined forms such as sonnets, blank
verse, etc. We must therefore look at the 'type' of prose and consider its function or
objective — i.e. to inform, to describe, to change, etc. Assessing the type of prose
serves a limited, yet useful purpose; limited because many passages will combine
different 'types' of prose writing simultaneously, yet useful in providing a starting-point
that will direct the more detailed analysis to follow. The different types of prose fall into
the following broad categories.
NARRATIVE This is the most common type of prose found in novels and stories. Basically it
relates to any sort of writing that tells a story, or develops a plot. If a given extract deals with
events or situations, they are likely to be those of a particularly telling or significant nature (for
the characters or the author); if it deals with a character, it will illuminate something important
about that character in action. In narrative prose, the writer is concerned with two basic
objectives: 1. to give the reader all the necessary and relevant information so that characters
and events in his narrative are explained, or make sense; 2. to promote and sustain the reader's
interest and curiosity, offering the interesting, the unusual, or the intriguing in character and
situation. The second aspect will be in particular evidence at the beginning of a work, while in
the same way a sense of drama or suspense often accompanies passages that close a chapter or
section. Narrative prose will be either first or third person narrative. The first person, or 'I'
narrative generally produces a more personal, intimate form of communication. The reader is
drawn in to share the writer's experience and a sense of sympathy or understanding is
frequently developed, even when the narrator is seen to transgress moral or legal norms. The
third person narrative is more 'detached', yet its scope is wider. The writer (and the reader
following him) assumes a 'godlike' perspective above the action, showing us all things at all
times and leading us into the minds and hearts and motives of all his main characters. There is
also a type of narrative prose known as 'stream of consciousness'. This is a modern
development that seeks to take the first person narrative even deeper. The aim is to reproduce
the random flow of frequently unassociated ideas that race through the human mind at any
given moment. The objective, external world is diminished and everything is seen exclusively
through the perceptions of one mind, which is analysed in all its ramifications, with the trivial
and the significant side by side. It is an attempt to be more accurate and honest in the portrayal
of human psychology. In the hands of a Joyce or a Woolf, it has proved an extremely effective
form of narration.

DESCRIPTIVE Here the main function, obviously, is to describe, to give as accurately,

or intriguingly, or powerfully as possible a deep impression of a character, place, or
situation. The reader should 'feel' the scene and be able to see it or hear it as vividly as
possible. Such prose is usually strong on atmosphere and the atmosphere of the
description will say much about how the writer, or the characters involved, feel about
what is being described. Such writing is usually the sort of prose that assumes a 'poetic'
quality and will employ images and figurative language to colour the descriptions and
involve the reader's emotions. Novels and stories will generally combine narrative and
descriptive prose in the flow of the writing, even within short extracts. An event may be
narrated, followed by a description of the mood or feeling it produces in the characters.
The effective use of detail is crucial to good descriptive writing. A writer cannot include
everything about a person or an event, so he will seek the most telling and significant
details, those that give us the very essence of the person, place, or event as he sees
them. The type of detail chosen and the sort of associations aroused will say much
about how the writer feels towards his subject; we always, for instance, know exactly
how Dickens feels (and wants the reader to feel) about all his characters from his initial
descriptions. The student should consider the use of detail carefully. Does the writer
have a real 'eye' for telling detail? Do the details combine to produce a uniform
atmosphere? Are they surprising, unexpected, memorable? Do the details come alive
for the reader and allow him to visualize or understand more vividly? Or are the details
perhaps contrived or stale or insignificant?

DISCURSIVE Discursive writing offers the writer's thoughts on a particular topic such as
'the delights of living in the country', or 'the tribulations of urban life', providing general
observations from his own and perhaps humorous or unusual, perspective. There is
usually a sense of a mind enjoying its own intellectual activity and creative expression.
The basic intention will vary somewhat, as the word 'discourse' can mean a lecture or
sermon, whereas 'discursive' has connotations of random observations and light
conversation. A novelist may well employ discursive sections to reveal the thoughts and
values of his characters — a more subtle means of 'characterization' than simply telling
us how characters think and feel, as the reader shares the actual thoughts.

DIDACTIC/DIRECTIVE Such writing attempts to influence the reader's thinking or

behavior in a specific manner, as the writer seeks to persuade, or cajole, or coerce the
reader into thinking in a certain way. Generally, such writing deals with moral or political
issues and is most commonly found in the sermon, treatise, journalism, or, at its lowest
form, propaganda. The writer is usually passionately involved with his subject, seeing
wrongs and evils that must be corrected. At its best, such writing can be powerful,
moving and persuasive. At its worst, it usually reeks of fanaticism and, though its social
consequences may be dangerous, it is usually poor writing. A differentiation may be
made between 'didactic' and 'directive'. At a simple level, it lies in the difference between
the impassioned prose of a sermon and the detached prose of instruction (which 'directs'
the reader as to what to do). Didactic is, in fact, best reserved for purely moral issues,
while directive adequately covers the rest.

SATIRIC Like certain other literary terms — i.e. 'pathetic' — the modern usage of this
word does not fully indicate the original meaning. Nowadays, we tend to use the word
'satiric' for anything that ridicules the excesses or pretensions of certain types of people
(politicians being an ever-popular target, especially for cartoonists). Traditionally,
however, a 'satire' was more seriously intended and conceived. It highlightted folly,
immorality or excess by exaggeration thereby deflating it and making it appear ludicrous
and ridiculous. Yet such satires had the genuinely didactic purpose of correcting such
weaknesses, or satires had the genuinely didactic purpose of correcting such
weaknesses, or at least preventing those possessed of them from gaining power and
influence. The hope was that the reader would note the ludicrous, despicable and
contemptible nature of such behaviour and avoid it himself — if only for fear of
appearing equally ridiculous. The elements of satire tend to be exaggeration,
disproportion, ridicule and sarcasm. The reader must catch the right tone to avoid a
reading that is too literal and taken at face value — the type of reading that might
dismiss Animal Farm as a harmless fantasy of 'talking' animals. Modern satire has
tended to be less moral than traditional satire, highlighting folly, etc. in an anarchic or
destructive manner without offering or implying an alternative — as in the 'Absurd'
dramatists.

CONDITIONING CONDITIONALS
Present Real Conditional
FORM
[If / When ... Simple Present ..., ... Simple Present ...]
[... Simple Present ... if / when ... Simple Present ...]
USE
The Present Real Conditional is used to talk about what you normally do in real-life
situations.
Examples:
If I go to a friend's house for dinner, I usually take a bottle of wine or some flowers.
When I have a day off from work, I often go to the beach.
If the weather is nice, she walks to work.
Jerry helps me with my homework when he has time.
I read if there is nothing on TV.
A: What do you do when it rains? B: I stay at home.
A: Where do you stay when you go to Sydney? B: I stay with my friends near the
harbor.

IMPORTANT If / When
Both "if" and "when" are used in the Present Real Conditional. Using "if" suggests that
something happens less frequently. Using "when" suggests that something happens
regularly.
Examples:
When I have a day off from work, I usually go to the beach. I REGULARLY HAVE DAYS
OFF FROM WORK.
If I have a day off from work, I usually go to the beach. I RARELY HAVE DAYS OFF FROM
WORK.

Present Unreal Conditional

FORM
[If ... Simple Past ..., ... would + verb ...]
[... would + verb ... if ... Simple Past ...]
USE
The Present Unreal Conditional is used to talk about what you would generally do in
imaginary situations.
Examples:
If I owned a car, I would drive to work. But I don't own a car.
She would travel around the world if she had more money. But she doesn't have
much money.
I would read more if I didn't watch so much TV.
Mary would move to Japan if she spoke Japanese.
If they worked harder, they would earn more money.
A: What would you do if you won the lottery? B: I would buy a house.
A: Where would you live if you moved to the U.S.? B: I would